Rarotonga, Cook Islands, April 4, 2017 During the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) 21^st AGM and Tradeshow 2017, held in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Huawei, as an exclusive network provider for Bluesky, announced its partnership with the operator to deploy a 4.5G LTE-Advanced network solution, upgrading from its existing 2G/3G network, to meet increasing demand for mobile applications and services in American Samoa, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Designed specifically to accommodate mobile internet and data more efficiently, during a live test performed at the launch yesterday, the network recorded an impressive 500Mbps single user throughput speeds. It is now considered to be the fastest network in the Pacific Islands, will enable faster and more reliable connectivity throughout the islands to help fuel social and economic growth.

Phillip Henderson, Country Manager of Bluesky Cook Islands, said: “Bluesky’s collaboration with Huawei marks a new era of high-speed communications for the Bluesky Group of Companies in American Samoa, Samoa and the Cook Islands. In many parts of these islands wire-line deployments are not feasible from a logistical and cost perspective, so using LTE-A will bring mobile internet to areas that previously had no or limited internet access. By delivering high speed, low latency, and huge capacity, the innovative LTE-A solution from Huawei will enable us to provide an ultra-fast mobile broadband experience for consumers and businesses, crucial for social and economic growth. For the Cook Islands in particular, it enhances our Universal Service offering and ensures that the Cook Islands’ users have access to the most current technological offering available, supported by a world class partner in Huawei.”

Jack Xu, CEO of Huawei Fiji, said: “High-speed communications will form the foundation of the future for the Pacific Islands, enabling a fully connected island nations where mobile-enabled digital devices become flexibly integrated into citizens’ daily lives. We are collaborating with telecom operators, like Bluesky and other ecosystem players, to help them embrace new ICT technologies such as Cloud Services, Wireless-to-the-Premise (WTTx), and LTE-A networks, providing them with the capabilities to meet demands for innovative services and applications such as e-health, e-government and smart tourism.”

The 4.5G LTE-A network features carrier aggregation, enhanced use of multi-antenna techniques and support for Replay Nodes (RN) to help operators boost network capacity and performance to offer high quality voice and data services. Strengthening the value proposition of LTE-A is the WTTx solution which enables Bluesky to offer fibre-like broadband to businesses and homes, even in geographically challenged areas. WTTx can tap into existing mobile base solutions without having to pull cables, thereby allowing faster deployment without added investment in infrastructures.  

The partnership marks an important milestone for communications in the Pacific Islands, enabling Bluesky to deploy a centralized Online Charging System (OCS) to provide attractive and flexible service bundles for businesses and consumers. VoLTE will allow users to benefit from better voice quality and rich communications services that improve daily life, such as e-learning, watching videos, gaming, and working while on-the-move. This will ultimately attract more subscribers, helping Bluesky to improve revenues and business growth and position it as a leading operator in the Pacific Islands.

Following Huawei’s technology investment over the past few years, the Pacific Islands are connecting to the digital world through reliable and higher-speed internet connectivity to improve the lives of its citizens. Huawei will continue to focus on advancing the development of ultra-broadband access networks with technologies such as LTE-A to connect the unconnected and bring innovative services to the region.

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Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. Our aim is to enrich life and improve efficiency through a better connected world, acting as a responsible corporate citizen, innovative enabler for the information society, and collaborative contributor to the industry. Driven by customer-centric innovation and open partnerships, Huawei has established an end-to-end ICT solutions portfolio that gives customers competitive advantages in telecom and enterprise networks, devices and cloud computing. Huawei’s 170,000 employees worldwide are committed to creating maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers. Our innovative ICT solutions, products and services are used in more than 170 countries and regions, serving over one-third of the world’s population. Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees.

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